Forum Discussion
Webcam image is horizontally flipped
When video conferencing in Teams the image is flipped horizontally. I cannot find any options to flip the image to the correct orientation like you can do in Skype 4 Business.
Any news on when this functionality is coming?
Thanks
Hi,
When you see your selfview in Teams it will be flipped, so it is easier for you. But when the other participants in the meeting see your video they will see it the correct way. So text will be mirrored for you but the correct way for others.
66 Replies
I am trying - in these trying times (Covid 19) to use "teams" to teach. Unfortunately my laptop camera is in the wrong position to video me writing on paper. However, my little tablet has a better camera, and records beautiful videos (no lateral inversion) of my lesson. However, I want to do this live! Spent the whole of yesterday attempting this.
The teams app in the play store for use on my android tablet (free) - does not have video conferencing at all, (no little camera anywhere, not even in top right hand corner). The web browser version of office 365 teams, is doing this flipping thin, and also has huge delay that more often than not times out and the video picture is not collected at all.
Finally I have installed AirDroid - a beautiful little program that will transfer the screen image of the tablet into the desktop - the right way round (AirDroid mirror). However, there is some deterioration in the picture quality - so I would like the office 365 teams android app - which I have now requested 5 times - but get no download link sent to me. I assume the correct app, will not reverse the image.
I do hope that someone from Microsoft can answer this before I start teaching on Monday!
I have been helping my mom to conduct her math lessons with whiteboard, and experienced the same problem. The writing was flipped. I tried Google Hangouts and Teams, and even though I could rotate the view on the USB camera software, this would not replicate in the Hangouts or Teams clients, which was very frustrating. I ended up using Zoom, because the desktop client has a rotate button in the Camera settings, allowing you to adjust the view so that the students don't need to read backwards. The downside is that the free account has a 40mins cap for group meetings, but it is the only app which solved the rotation problem. Hope Microsoft will look into this asap.
No one needs to read backwards in Teams, it will show you a preview that is mirrored as that's more normal to look at when it's your video, but specifically other people will see your video the normal way round. Just ignore the preview!
Vanphys the 'flipping' thing is not an issue.
Teams will show only you a mirrored image of your webcam, the idea being that it's actually very confusing to look at your self not mirrored. We only really ever see ourselves that way round.
Teams will show anyone else your image the right way round, as that's how they are used to seeing you.
I appreciate it's confusing when using the camera to show something other than your video, but you can trust that your students are not seeing things flipped.
StevenC365 Indeed you're correct. I did a test from another account and sure enough it appears 'normal' to the external viewer. For some reason It's just a little more disorienting to see a mirrored image that we know is coming from an external camera. But I can see why it happens.
It doesn't matter much to see myself mirrored, but if I am pushing a software app through my Blackmagic ATEM switcher (that my computer thinks is a webcam), it too is flipped. That's annoying. Even though I know it's normal to the audience, I have to look at the Teams window image with mirrored PowerPoint text. It's annoying we can't turn off that 'feature' in Teams.
- To manage in a more convenient manner the image i'm sending I'm using « ManyCam » which allows to mirror webcam inputs. Anyhow extra content (such as a timer, a ticker, ...) is not meant to be added flipped. Thus to go around Teams limitations I'm sharing the output screen, which isn't the ideal solution.
Can't Microsoft add, as in most VC software a setting under « Devices » : « Camera » to un-flip the output ? I have this same problem, outputting from Logitech Capture with text on screen flips to backwards on broadcast. If I flip in Capture, Teams still reverses the text overlay. Can we please just have a self view that's actually the view going out over Teams, with an option to reverse it? Technodude
- Agreed, this is exactly what should be done.
Curt-K Vote for this uservoice:
But until Microsoft adds some settings for this at least the viewers will see the picture correct and you will see it as a mirror.
My actual problem was that in distance learning sessions I wanted to draw/write something quickly for my students on a sheet of paper, and with auto-mirror it's useless.
Here comes the workaround.
I have an additional (external) USB camera, which is a cheap Logitech C270, and after having installed the Logitech software I discovered that the image is still mirrored in the Teams video session, but NOT in the default Windows camera application. So, I do the following:
I open the Camera App and select the USB camera as its input. Next, I let the Teams share my desktop instead of showing the video connection (which is still handled - in mirror mode - by the built-in front webcam). Now, the students (and myself) can see the non-flipped picture, taken from the Camera App on my desktop. In fact, I can switch back and forth between the desktop mode and the video mode - whenever I want the students to admire my face instead of my drawings.
One can do the same trick with any other external camera and any app that does not mirror the camera input, in contrast to Teams. I know this does not answer your basic question, but may be of some help.
Hi,
When you see your selfview in Teams it will be flipped, so it is easier for you. But when the other participants in the meeting see your video they will see it the correct way. So text will be mirrored for you but the correct way for others.
- it is not easier for me everything is the wrong way round and it feels uncomfortable if people want mirroring it should be an option not an imposition
My image is flipped on in team, and when the person at the other end looks at me the image is still flipped, when I but text in front of the camera,they see the text upside down. It work good with skype but I haven't found solution for Microsoft Team or Zoom
- Hi, that sounds strange. The only mirroring that Teams does is the one for selfview. Check if you have any settings for your camera, ex. a logitech application if you have a logitech camera.
LinusCansby Why can't we configure the camera to work the way we think it should? Did Microsoft actually do usability tests before deciding we had no choice in this matter?
efglynn Voting for the uservoice is the best way to get a change.
Toggle video camera mirroring on or off for Teams calls – Microsoft Teams UserVoice
Microsoft tests all functions before releasing them, for Teams they are working with different rings and releases features internally first, then to some organisations, TAP users etc, and finally to all Teams organisations. So either they haven't got any comments or they decided that a toggle switch for video mirroring was not that important compared with other features.
